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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Day 5 of my Cape Cod vacation was spent on Martha's Vineyard. My friends and I had just got done viewing the famous gingerbread house and eating lunch at the fabulous Lookout Tavern. We decided to walk around the main streets of Oaks Bluff. The shops are quaint and cute and several of them are your typical tourist trap shops. Of course we stopped at The Black Dog but I didn't buy anything. We stopped at many cheap t-shirt shops that had hilarious shirts and other strange items. Below are some of the hilarious shirts we saw.

And of a Jesus action figure....with gliding arms!

After window shopping my friends and I did what we do best...... we got drunk. Chris told us about a place called Offshore Ale House located at 30 Kennebec Ave. There beers were pricey but good. I don't like dark beer so I can't comment on those but I did have a East Chop Lighthouse Ale that was very good. Warning to those that have peanut allergies, this is a bar that allows you to toss peanut shells on the ground. However, they do have outside seating for those that are not keen on peanuts. You can also order food here but I just stuck to a liquid lunch.

After the Ale House we ventured back to the dock to drink and wait for the ferry to arrive. We decided on a place called the Sand Bar & Grill. Once again we did not eat here, so I can't comment on the food. We did drink our faces off though. We had an hour to kill before the 5 o'clock ferry came, so that meant power hour. I had several Coronas, vodka redbulls and shots of something yummy.

The gang at Sand Bar & Grill

Finally it was time to board the ferry, so we left the bar and stumbled on board. We kept drinking on the way back to the main land and decided that we needed to eat. We decided on the Black Cat Harbor Shack on Ocean Street because it was literally across the street from the dock. My sister Kelly and my friend Ryan were blackout drunk, so we weren't sure if they would even allow us to eat there. After being told the wait for 6 would take 45 mins, Kelly tried to slip the hostess a $20. I think it worked because we ended up only waiting 5 mins. I would recommend the clam chowder and anything seafood inspired. I would also recommend you don't go with friends that are shit faced because the white collar customers were giving us looks. Judging by the photo's below you can see why......

.....And now he is in a bush

After dinner, we drove back to our cape house and had plans to keep drinking but we all passed out before midnight. I recommend the Vineyard to anyone visiting the cape. However, one day is not enough there. There is too much to see and do, so a weekend at the Vineyard would be ideal.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Couple Finds 2,000-Year-Old Archaeological Treasures Under Their House

By Sharona Schwartz - The Blaze

When Miriam and Theo Siebenberg purchased a plot of land for their new home in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City that Israel had just a few years before captured from Jordan, they had no idea of the antiquity treasures dating back from Jesus' time and before that lay underneath.

Before the Siebenbergs built their house in a neighborhood where archaeological finds were regularly cropping up, Israeli Department of Antiquities inspectors examined the site, but found nothing of historical significance that would have stopped construction.

At the time, archaeologists from the Hebrew University were excavating all around the Jewish Quarter.

"I went over one day and asked the archaeologists if they had checked the area where my house was," Theo Siebenberg told the New York Times in 1985. "They said they had and that they were sure nothing was there."

But to Siebenberg, that answer didn't seem right.

"I would stand here and picture myself in the Second Temple Period. The temple was just over there," he told the Times, pointing to the nearby Western Wall, the most holy site in Judaism. "Why wouldn't Jews have built here then? Every inch of land near the Temple must have been very valuable."

So he took matters into his own hands. He approached the engineers who had built his new house, asking if he and his wife could conduct an archaeological dig underneath. They told him that if an excavation upset the stability of the land, it could cause the neighborhood to slide down the hill.

Still, he didn't give up.

Engineers came up with a pricey plan to construct a restraining wall held down by steel anchors which would secure his neighbors' homes. A wealthy man, Siebenberg was able to fund the project independently, according to media accounts 30 years ago, and to guarantee his neighbors that he would pay for any damage the dig might inflict on their homes.

So the wall was built and the Siebenbergs were able to embark on their treasure hunt. They hired a team of architects, engineers, archaeologists, laborers and even donkeys to bring the rubble up from down below.

It was only after eight months of digging that they found their first artifact, a bronze key ring from the era of the Second Temple which may have been used as a key to a jewelry box.

The First Find: A bronze key ring from the Second Temple Period (Photo Credit: Tzuriel Cohen-Arazi, Tazpit News Agency)

Soon after, they came across an abundance of ancient archaeological treasures. Among them: the wall of a 2,000-year-old home, two mikvehs (Jewish ritual baths), arrowheads possibly used by Jews defending themselves from the Romans, a Byzantine water cistern, an ivory pen and an ink well. Encouraged by their finds, they dug further. Sixty feet below, they found empty burial chambers believed to be at least 2,600 years old, dated to the First Temple.

"The Siebenberg excavation is not only a monument to determination and plain bull-headedness, but an engineering and structural marvel," wrote Biblical Archaeology Review in a 1982 articleabout the project.

Arrowheads on display at the Siebenberg House (Photo courtesy: Seibenberg Family)

After digging for 18 years, they converted the lower levels of their house to a museum where visitors can view the ancient treasures and descend into the excavation to feel what it was like to dig into ancient history.

For Theo, the project was motivated by his personal quest to find his roots. At age 13, he was forced to flee Belgium to escape the Nazis. After moving around Europe and eventually to the U.S., he felt he was missing a connection with Jewish history. His wife Miriam tells TheBlaze that he dedicated his life to finding a true home he felt he had lost in Europe.

The project "was motivated by wanting to find his roots. My husband was born in Antwerp. He felt like a boy without a home. He was searching for a spiritual home," Miriam says.

"All of the investment and the dedication and effort were aimed at finding the home he was looking for his whole life. That was the idea, finding the historical continuity," she adds.

The Siebenbergs decided to one day donate the museum and its contents to the Israeli public. They have set up a non-profit organization for that purpose.

You can view many more photos of the museum and collection on their Facebook page.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

My alarm went off at 8 am. My friends and I had to rush out of the house to catch the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. The ferry was to leave Hyannis at 10 am and it was a good thing to get there early because the ticket lines where annoyingly long.

Ferry to the Vineyard

Around 9:30 we got on the boat and started the hour long journey to the Vineyard. The boys (Erik, Ryan and Chris) immediately made there way down to the bar and my sister and I met them there shortly after. Since it was only 10 am I decided not to look that much like an alcoholic and just got a Bloody Mary. Now I nursed my Bloody Mary the entire way to the Vineyard, however my sister lapped me... three times. Its safe to say that Kelly and my friend Ryan were both drunk before we got to the island.

First order of business once we got on the Vineyard was to get some food in our stomaches. We headed to the Lookout Tavern for lunch based on a recommendation from some locals. The two drunks in our group decided to get the smallest lunch; Sashimi.

The two drunks enjoying their small lunch

I got a chicken dish that had to weigh about 5 lbs and was fairly cheap. The food and drinks were excellent and I would recommend you check out The Lookout Tavern if you ever visit the Vineyard.

A beautiful park next to the Lookout Tavern

After lunch my sister was eager to see the famous gingerbread cottages on the island. Chris told us he knew the way, so we rightfully followed him. He took us through a beautiful park and into to several random neighborhoods. After 10 mins of walking in circles we started a mutiny against Chris and Ryan took over as the tour guide. Ryan successfully lead us in the right direction and Kelly finally got to see the house. Below are some of the cottages we saw that day.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Check out this article by Beth Greenfield about a new book called Warrior Princess. I can't wait to pick this book up and write my own review about it.

How Did This California Girl Become a Real Warrior Princess

By Beth Greenfield

California entrepreneur Mindy Budgor was just 27 when she sold off a successful business she had created, netting enough to drive a BMW and shop at Gucci and Prada. Still, she felt hollow and like a failure, and was desperate to find more meaning in life. Budgor found it in the unlikeliest of places: the Kenyan wilderness, where she slept on the ground with members of the Maasai tribe, shedding enough of her formerly privileged existence to become the tribe’s first female warrior.

“If you’d told me a year earlier that I’d be deep in the bush, hair knotted from days in the forest, running in the direction of a 1,300-pound [buffalo] that could make short work of me, I’d have told you to get your head examined,” she told Glamour in an October-issue story about her new memoir, “Warrior Princess.” “Yet there I was. And I’d never been more sure I was in the right place.”

So how did a nice Jewish girl from Santa Barbara—one who loved manis and pedis and warm croissants, and whose biggest travel adventure up to that point had been a cruise to Alaska, according to the Guardian—wind up in such a place?

It all started with Budgor’s decision to take a friend’s advice: She would shake up her comfortable life and embark upon a tough humanitarian mission to Kenya, where she’d assist in building a health clinic in a Kenyan game reserve. During her two weeks there, she learned much about the seminomadic Maasai tribe through conversations with Winston, a local chief who spoke fluent English. He told her about the tribe’s brave warriors—how they ate raw meat, fended off lions and buffaloes, protected their community with spears and swords, and were basically fearless.

Budgor asked if women could be warriors and was told, unequivocally, no, because “women aren't strong enough or brave enough to do it.” That answer, as Budgor explained in her Guardian essay, made her furious. “I can take no for an answer if there's a good reason, but the idea that women couldn't be warriors just because they weren't men wasn't sitting well with me,” she wrote. “Winston and I made a deal that if I left my stilettos behind, he would take me through the traditional rites of passage to become a warrior.”

She flew back to California to prepare for her incredible opportunity — one that a Maasai woman implored upon her not to squander. It was then, Budgor explains, that she realized the challenge went beyond the personal. “Maasai women are extraordinarily strong: they build homes, chop trees for firewood, walk seven hours a day to fetch water,” she explained in the Guardian. “But they are not treated as equals. I knew that the warriors had the utmost respect in the tribe and that they were given greater access to education and not married off when they were 12. I believed that providing women with the right to become warriors would broaden the tribe's perspective of their personal power, which could only help them fight to maintain their customs.”

After working with a personal trainer for six weeks in California to get in shape for her upcoming challenge, Budgor, along with a similarly adventurous friend, returned to Winston. He reneged on his offer, but the determined women found their way to a more open-minded warrior named Lanet, in Nairobi, who agreed to take them on.

They headed into the African bush with essentials: tartan sheets for clothing, metal tips for spears and, for Budgor, a bottle of Chanel Dragon red nail polish (“It just made me feel fierce,” she explained) and a pair of pearl earrings to remind her of home.

Lanet and six other warriors then led them through a month of surreal tasks that were both physically and mentally challenging: sleeping on the ground in a communal bed of leaves and branches, going days without food, getting bloody blisters on her hands as she practiced spear-hunting skills, and, incredibly, suffocating a goat to death and drinking its warm blood (which Budgor vomited up immediately).

“The entire time I never put a brush through my hair. I’d wash myself with the same water cows and buffalo used, yet I felt beautiful,” she told Glamour. “I felt strong. I felt proud.”

In a final test of bravery, Budgor speared a massive buffalo, inspiring cheers from her warrior trainers. She had passed, and was deemed a warrior, and succeeded in changing the Maasai gender policy; this year, 12 girls in the village she had been in will go through the warrior training.

Back in the U.S., Budgor went back to her life of luxury, but was forever changed. “I wasn’t the same girl who’d gone into the bush,” she said. She went on to graduate from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, currently lives in New York, and has not stopped pushing herself. In August, Budgor ran a half marathon in Canada, posting these words of wisdom on her Facebook page in the days leading up to the race: “Warrior tip: Keep going.”

Thursday, September 5, 2013

So far I have written quite a lot about beautiful beaches on this blog. I have mention several beaches in Hawaii (Puamana, Little beach, etc) and I have even made atop 10 list about the best black sand beaches.So this blog is dedicated to the MOST COLORFUL BEACHES IN THE WORLD.

1. Papakolea Beach - Hawaii

Also known as Green Sand Beach. Located on the southern tip of the big island. It's only accessible by foot or four wheeler. Papakolea Beach's sand is made of tiny olivine crystals from the near-by lava rocks.

2. Kokkini Beach - Santorini, Greece

Also known as Red Beach. The sand is red because of red lava rocks left over from an ancient volcanic eruption in 1450 B.C. 3. Pink Sand Beach - Harbor Island, Bahamas

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

How sweet would it be if you could own an island in the South Pacific? I know I would have friends coming out of the wood work who would want to go to my island. Check out this article from yahoo by Jennifer Karmon

Paradise for sale -- bring your best offer

I never imagined I'd regard a multimillion-dollar property as a bargain, but this island paradise in the South Pacific appears to qualify. The compound known as Rai Ki Wai, on more than 45 acres of land on the highest point of the Fijian island of Wakaya, originally went on the market for $12 million. Its living space totals about 23,000 square feet, spread across several expansive pavilions and three smaller guest "bures" (huts).

After failing to sell at $12 million, the price was knocked down. It sits at $6,950,000 -- and if it still doesn't sell, it's going to the highest bidder at auction Oct. 3. The auction has no reserve -- no minimum bid (though of course the property still very likely to sell for several million dollars). And the property even has potential to actually make money for its owner, the auction listing notes: "Rai Ki Wai can be easily rented as turnkey vacation property through an agreement with the exclusive Wakaya Club & Resort. The resort can provide all the food, housecleaning, and other amenities expected."

Maybe this is how the rich get richer? It seems like a no-brainer, and listing agent Laura Kalb assures me it's an "amazing bargain" that "cannot be duplicated even close to that price." I'm sold. But then, I have the luxury of being profligate with my fortune, since it's entirely imaginary.